OUGD504 - Primary Research

OUGD504 - Primary Research

Primary Research:

5 different gym circuits ranging from easy to hard to help a beginner know what to do in the gym and progress with experience. The circuits were created by a personal trainer at Virgin Active Gym.

Repeat all 3x

Before each circuit, perform 10 minutes of cardio.

After each circuit, complete a cool down of 10 – 15 minutes.

Circuit 1 (easy) 30 – 60 seconds of each:

-       Basic bicep curl

-       Ab crunch

-       Body weight squat

-       Shuttle runs

Circuit 2 (easy to moderate) 30 – 60 seconds of each:

-       Renegate row

-       Medi ball russian twists

-       Bear crawl, forward and back (3 metre distance)

-       Bulgarian bag lunge

Circuit 3 (moderate) 30 – 60 seconds of each:

-       Push ups (progression and regression options, shown in pictures)

-       Plank

-       Dumbbell squat

-       Burpees

Circuit 4 (moderate to hard) 30 – 60 seconds of each:

-       Overhead press

-       Plank walks

-       Sumo squats (with steps and kettlebell)

-       Lunges with barbell

-       Squat thrusts

Circuit 5 (hard) 30 – 60 seconds of each:

-       Plate raises

-       Body drop into shuttle run

-       V sits

-       Explodes

-       Barbell squat

-       Flys

Primary Photographs:

The photographs taken are examples of how to do the difference exercises used in the circuits and the different equipment that needs to be used. They also show the correct technique needed for using the different equipment.

OUGD504 - Identifying a Subject

OUGD504 - Identifying a Subject

Interests:

• Music - Reading music, writing music, playing the guitar, singing, festivals
• Sports - Tennis, swimming
• Food - Cake (Cookery book)
• The Gym
• Traveling - Places I have been (Spain, Italy, Belguim)

Existing Guides for subjects of interest:

Music:

Sports:

Food:

The gym:

Travel:

Chosen Subject:

How to survive a trip to the gym - for beginners

Reasoning:

From working at a gym for over 3 years it is clear that there could be more focus on helping beginners get started in the gym. The gym can be a very intimidating place and therefore a guide to help beginners overcome the fear would fill a gap in the market. It should be an easy to read guide, involving humour and a colloquial tone making it easy to understand.

OUGD504 - Target Audience

Target Audience:

From working at the gym for 3 years I have a pretty solid idea of who I wanted this book to target but it could be spread to a wider audience. I want the book to be aimed at real beginners to the gym who are intimidated by the use of gym floor. This is because I think that the gym needs to be made less of a scary place for new people and less of a judging atmosphere. By creating a guide for beginners in the gym they wont feel at a loss as they can refer to the help they have in front of them whilst they gain their confidence. The book can be for people of any age and size as there will be variations to the workouts which allows people to pick the weights etc that suite them.

When looking into others who have targeted this target market I came across a scheme called daily burn who intend on helping beginners to exercise get fit and feel confident doing it. Below is a quote from the head of marketing for the company.


"The beginner workout market in fitness is underserved, especially in streaming, and as a result we see an opportunity to help a large portion of the population live healthier, fit lives," said Kevin Ranford, head of marketing for Daily Burn. "By providing community and support to help beginners stay motivated and engaged, we see a big opportunity in 2016 and forward."


The way in which the target audience could be expanded is by also taking into the account the people who have already used the gym but still feel extremely unconfident there. These people could also look at purchasing the book as the variations would allow them to alter their own workouts if they felt it were necessary. 

OUGD504 - Brief and Idea Generation

Brief and Idea Generation:

Studio Brief 1:

Identify an area of personal interest and gather a range of primary and secondary research. It need to communicate the context and key information associated with the chosen subject. Observe, interpret, discover and record facts, information and images. Only concentrate on gathering and recording a significant body of research at this stage (NO DESIGNING). At the start of level 5 this research will be applied to your brief to create a guide book/publication on the chosen subject. 

Look at basing your ideas on what you have done over the summer so that it will be easy to collect the research.

Idea Generation:

• What to take to a festival.
• How to survive a trip to the gym - for beginners.
• Essentials when driving long distances.
• Beginners guide to the guitar. 
• A tour around Northampton Town
• A dummies guide to the rules of tennis - Wimbledon preparation. 

The idea which I chose to go with is how to survive a trip to the gym for beginners. As I work in a gym this was a very accessible subject to use. I spent a lot of time working over the summer (mainly to help with the student debt) but this meant that I spent most of my time in the gym. From working in the gym and seeing the people that come and go it became very clear that the beginners find it quite intimidating to go onto gym floor especially when they don't really know what they are doing. This is why I decided it would be good to make a guide that would help them feel more comfortable going onto gym floor and adding a little bit of humour into the guide would make the gym seem a lot less of a scary place.